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Archive for August, 2018

Had a wonderful week in Somaliland, attending the Hargeysa International Book Fair to launch Asha’s book The Sea-Migrations. We did two events, and it was one of the first times I’ve heard a poet applauded after every line of her poem! It was wonderful to be part of a Woman and Wisdom event, and to hear traditional womens’ poems sung. I also finally tried camel milk, after years of translating descriptions of it (fresh, with a hay and smoke taste – I was only allowed two sips as it is ‘very strong’). This long read in The Guardian explains how the country is unrecognised at the moment. It’s hard to comprehend when you’re there – the city was peaceful and welcoming, with international guests invited to dinner at the university by Edna Aden (stuffed lamb, fish curry, carafes of fresh watermelon juice) and even to the presidential palace on my final night. The people are entrepreneurial and tech-savvy: goats and camels wander the streets with phone numbers written on them, and I was impressed by the way locals pay for even bus rides by money-transfers on their mobiles.

The trip was a blur of brightly painted shops; qat shacks with piles of green leaves outside; jugs of sweet, spicy tea; dusty breezes; dancing; ceaseless political debate. In the Mansoor hotel, guarded by its giant tortoise, each breakfast delegates from Rwanda, South Sudan and Ethiopia discussed the future of Africa, and I ate my mango and got an education…

(Also managed to reconnect with the cultural zeitgeist on the flight back by watching Black Panther and reading the whole of Olivia Laing’s Crudo.)

Then this weekend it was Port Eliot – sadly wet and windy, but it’s always nice to catch up with the Idlers and I was very pleased to do my first talk about my forthcoming non-fiction title, Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind our Picture Books, in the Idler Academy tent – itseemed to go well. I also caught Luke Wright’s enjoyable Frankie Vah show and Martha Sprackland’s set at Caught by the River, and the children seemed to enjoy Morris Dancing and sleeping badly in a leaking tent…

Back to my desk now to start putting together the next issue of MPT, which has a Ted Hughes and Hungary theme (Hungarian submission deadline is 10th of August)